Part 1: Ralf Caers
Session 1
(Why) do you think we need a separate course for this?
Change is difficult (people often resist change)
Change is everywhere, but fundamentals may be similar
Is change necessary?
Is change always a positive thing?
Examples where you see change doesn’t come as easily as you’d hope:
1) You tell your children they have to be more healthy and do more exercises. Not easy: your
children will protest. They block the change you propose. Your children do not agree
something should be done.
Fact 1: People may resist the change that you propose. Even if it is the right thing to do.
2) You get the idea that Islam is good for you because they are modest, don’t drink alcohol, …
You think your body would be more at ease. You wear the head scarf to honor Alah. You are
convinced this is good for you. Your family are shocked about the change. The process is
sudden for them, they were not part of it. They think you didn’t think it through. Your
parents will not go out in public with you anymore.
Fact 2: People may resist that you change. Even if it is the right thing to do.
3) You have some thoughts in your mind that are inconsistent. You have pros and cons.
Fact 3: You may resist that you change. Even if it is the right thing to do.
How is change perceived? The punctuated equilibrium.
You have less periods of major disturbance. After a major disturbance, you have a period of stability.
For example: Incremental change => One day, a person leaves.
Transformational change => 18 of the 20 people need to leave
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,Blue zone: people are leaving, normal levels of turnover.
Red shocks: Big layoffs of people
After the big layoffs, there’s a period of stability.
If the period of incremental change is too slow, you get a high probability a transformational change
is needed again.
The punctuated equilibrium
Part of the evolution theory
Belief that change does not happen only gradually, but with shocks (fe. World wars: things
were under the radar for too long, going on in the society, we didn’t tackle the problems
enough)
Period of relative stability followed by a shock
Major disturbances caused by events that alter the basic dynamics in an industry, how business is
done
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,External changer (external to industry, nobody’s actually responsible for it, it happens to all of us)
Economic conditions
New government regulations
Pandemic (covid-19)
External changer: economic conditions
Economic Conditions: Oil crises of 1973 and 1979.
Shortage in oil created by the oil producing countries. There was less oil available in western
world causing organizations to do business in a more difficult way. It happened in a global
level, no competitor did this.
External changer: government regulations
Brexit
o New trade arrangements determine how you can trade (fishery, import of goods, …)
Policies on CO2-emissions
o Tax deductions change attractiveness of particular models (SUV, Diesel, electric)
• Government changes the industry this way. They determine what consumers
like/not like.
Change in compensation for owners of solar panels
o Drop in subsidies affects the market as a whole
• Now solar panels are more mainstream, they are dropping subsidies. This
will affect the market again.
Rules for tobacco commercials
o Set boundaries for the entire sector
Calories in beer
o Beers didn’t show calories as of now they will need to show it. People nowadays are
more aware of what they’re eating (nutriscore). Some organizations don’t want a
nutriscore on their products.
External changer: Covid-19 changing businesses
Case of movie theatres worldwide
Ecosystem of movie makers and theatres
Theatrical release important for box office
Creating buzz and money from tickets (up to 50%)
AMC made a deal with Universal shortening
number of days films need to run in theaters
before going digital.
From 90 to 17 days.
Decision caused by covid.
Due to covid-19, classes are all online. You can watch them whenever you want. We’ve had these
changes so rapidly now because we must. If there was no covid, we would be teaching normally.
If we wanted to teach digitally without covid existing, it would take much longer.
3
, Internal changer (internal to industry)
One company trying to get a competitive advantage
Examples:
Tesla: delivered its first Shanghai-made Model Y crossovers in China
Volkswagen: has a factory in Rwanda (producing locally reduces costs)
De Beers: were against lab-grown synthetic diamonds (very close to real diamonds), they
announced they’ll start to produce lab-grown diamonds themselves (big change for the
industry). They hope by producing the lab-grown diamonds they can reduce the costs and
competitors will leave the market and we’re back to ‘normal’
Jumbo: Colruyt and Albert Heijn changed their model because Jumbo is an extra competitor
Bike industry: introduction of mountain bike, carbon bike frames, electric bikes, speed
pedelecs, steps, hoverboards, … All internal changes.
The punctuated equilibrium
Change has been speeding up in almost every sector
Links with technological advancements
Transformational change
Organization wide change (f.e. all departments have a change due to covid)
Need for new behaviors
We need to rethink the values and assumptions that underly our current behavior
o Unlock programmed behaviors (f.e. you see a light on your dashboard, you need to
fill up your gas => charge your car battery = new behavior)
o ‘Frame breaking’
Frame breaking
“The reconceptualization of one’s view of the situation caused by the mutual inquiry into
some experience of being with others” Bouwen & Fry (1988)
= Because of the interaction with people, we are able to change our mindset
Our experiences determine how we see the world
o f.e. In movies people are being shot. If we see a gun we think it’s dangerous. =
Anchor point in our mind
Reference frames (depending on what reference frames we have, we
look at a situation differently f.e. you’ve been bitten by a dog in the
past)
There often is not one truth, but multiple ones
“When you are dead, you do not know you are dead. The pain is only felt by others. The same
is true for being stupid.” Mark Manson
“Before we can look at our values and prioritizations and change them into better, healthier
ones, we must first become uncertain of our current values. We must intellectually strip them
away, see their faults and biases, see how they don’t fit in with much of the rest of the world,
to stare our own ignorance in the face and concede, because our own ignorance is greater
than us all.” Mark Manson
We have to start questioning ourselves. The way we look at the world, is that the only way?
And is it the right way? If we want to change our values we have to be critical about them.
Don’t really agree: if you think differently than the rest of the world, that doesn’t mean
you’re wrong. Sometimes the world is wrong.
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